Grandmother tortured in church sanctuary

Moon Nay Li has seen things that most of us can’t imagine. Five-year-olds rounded up and murdered. Feet amputated in the jungle by candlelight with no anesthesia. A grandmother gang-raped and tortured by soldiers in a church sanctuary for three days — that happened just three weeks ago.

Moon Nay Li is risking her life to document the human rights abuses being waged by the military of the Southeast Asian country of Burma against an ethnic minority called the Kachin. A Kachin herself, Moon Nay Li has seen Burma’s military systematically rape, torture, and murder to “clear the land” for big corporations to harvest the rich natural resources of her homeland.

Despite these horrors, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton just announced that American corporations can join the frenzy in Burma — the U.S. is suspending economic sanctions on Burma that had previously blocked American companies from doing business there.

Moon Nay Li says that suspending economic sanctions on Burma without protections for Burma’s people is tantamount to a death order for her people.

“These development projects that come into Northern Burma to harvest our natural resources lead directly to rape, torture, and murder,” Moon Nay Li says. “The Burmese military think they can rape ethnic women with impunity. And unless people like Hillary Clinton take action, nothing will change.”

Last year, Saudi Arabian women started a petition on Change.org asking Secretary Clinton to fight for their right to drive, and she came through — she even credited their petition for her change of heart. Moon believes that if thousands of people sign her petition, Secretary Clinton will take action to make sure that innocent people in Burma aren’t sacrificed just so American companies can make more money.